Therapeutic robot comforts elderly tsunami survivors

It's cuddly, cute and responds to your affection. Following a two-month evacuation from their home, residents are embracing a small white robotic seal. Reuters reports that the furry friends are being treated as pets by the residents, many of whom are dealing with memories of the quake.

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

Satsuko Yatsuzaka, 84, holds a therapeutic robot at the Suisyoen retirement home, on July 28.

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

A therapeutic robot named Paro opens its eyes as it reacts to an elderly user's hand at the Suisyoen retirement home, south of the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, on Monday, July 28.

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

Ayako Shizo, center, 85, taps therapeutic robot, Paro, as she sits with other residents at the Suisyoen retirement home, south of the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, on July 28.

Residents at a retirement home in Fukushima, Japan, use two robotic stuffed seals to help cope with traumatic memories from the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.